System and method for provisioning a mobile wireless communications device, including indicators representative of image and sound data

ABSTRACT

A system provisions a mobile wireless communications device for indicating account or device specific characteristics. A database stores a plurality of indicators that are indicative of different wireless carriers, email service providers and device types. A configuration module accesses the database and uploads an indicator that is indicative of at least one of the wireless carriers, email service providers or device types to the mobile wireless communications device upon provisioning. The indicator can comprise at least sound data for a ringing sound on the mobile wireless communications device.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of communications systems, and, more particularly, to electronic mail (email) communications systems and related methods.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electronic mail (email) has become an integral part of business and personal communications. As such, many users have multiple email accounts for work and home use. Moreover, with the increased availability of mobile cellular and wireless local area network (LAN) devices that can send and receive emails, many users wirelessly access emails from mailboxes stored on different email storage servers (e.g., corporate email storage server, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.).

Yet, email distribution and synchronization across multiple mailboxes and over wireless networks can be quite challenging, particularly when this is done on a large scale for numerous users. For example, different email accounts may be configured differently and with non-uniform access criteria. Moreover, as emails are received at the wireless communications device, copies of the emails may still be present in the original mailboxes, which can make it difficult for users to keep their email organized.

One particularly advantageous “push” type email distribution and synchronization system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,779,019 to Mousseau et al., which is assigned to the present Assignee and is hereby incorporated herein by reference. This system pushes user-selected data items from a host system to a user's mobile wireless communications device upon detecting the occurrence of one or more user-defined event triggers. The user may then move (or file) the data items to a particular folder within a folder hierarchy stored in the mobile wireless communications device, or may execute some other system operation on a data item. Software operating at the device and the host system then synchronizes the folder hierarchy of the device with a folder hierarchy of the host system, and any actions executed on the data items at the device are then automatically replicated on the same data items stored at the host system, thus eliminating the need for the user to manually replicate actions at the host system that have been executed at the mobile wireless communications device.

The foregoing system advantageously provides great convenience to users of wireless email communication devices for organizing and managing their email messages. Yet, further convenience and efficiency features may be desired in email distribution and synchronization systems as email usage continues to grow in popularity. Currently, many mobile wireless communication devices come preloaded with generic icons for functions such as a phone, in-box or other functions. Many third party email service providers, however, would like to have their own icons for email pushed to the mobile wireless communications device from their email service. This is also beneficial to allow users to sort which mail came from which account by using display characteristics. Because different wireless carriers or email service providers have different icons, themes, colors, styles display characteristics, or ringing styles and since different devices have different resolutions or fonts, it is difficult to preinstall all potential icons on every type of device that a user might require in order to display account or device-specific characteristics. When an external email account is provisioned on a mobile wireless communication device, it may require its own application entry point to appear on a ribbon and elsewhere on the mobile wireless communications device, such as read/unread icons in a message list. It may be desirable to retrieve branded/theme content using an HTTP service. An example of a system that changes some display characteristics such as color is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/237,077, filed Sep. 28, 2005.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, features and advantages of different embodiments will become apparent from the detailed description which follows, when considered in light of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is schematic block diagram of a direct access electronic mail (email) distribution and synchronization system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of user interface components of the direct access proxy of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the Web client engine of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the mobile office platform engine machine for use in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the database module of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of user interface components of the direct access proxy similar to that shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a system in accordance with a non-limiting example of the present invention that provisions a mobile wireless communications device to display account or device-specific characteristics, including indicators that are image data and sound data for different ringing sounds.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are fragmentary block diagrams of a display screen used on a mobile wireless communications device, showing the different types of font size, font typeface, graphics, text, icons or ringing sounds that could be displayed for different wireless carriers, email service providers or devices.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of one example of an image map in accordance with one non-limiting embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an exemplary mobile wireless communications device that can be used with the Direct Access system shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Different embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments are shown. Many different forms can be set forth and described embodiments should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

A system provisions a mobile wireless communications device for indicating account or device specific characteristics. A database stores a plurality of indicators that are indicative of different wireless carriers, email service providers, and device types. A configuration module accesses the database and uploads an indicator that is indicative of at least one of the wireless carriers, email service providers or device types to the mobile wireless communications device upon provisioning of the mobile wireless communications device to access email from a remote location. The indicator comprises at least sound data for a ringing sound on the mobile wireless communications device.

In another aspect, the indicator can be formed as image data, including data for focused and unfocused ribbon icons and read and unread message icons. The system can include a portable networks graphics (PNG) image map that contains image data. The image data could include color to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device. The image data could also be for a font size, font typeface, graphics, text, icons or resolution to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device. The sound data for a ringing sound can be formed of at least sound data for a ringing tune and loudness. The indicator could be data for a ribbon icon. A service book application data can contain a uniform resource locator (URL) that indicates where service-specific content for an indicator can be downloaded.

In yet another aspect, a system provisions a mobile wireless communications device and indicates account or device specific characteristics. A database stores a portable network graphics (PNG) image map and sound data for a ringing sound used on a mobile wireless communications device. The image map has image data and the image data and sound data comprise indicators that are indicative of different wireless carriers, email service providers and device types. An entry point content service is operative with the database for uploading indicators to a mobile wireless communications device. It includes service book application data containing a uniform resource locator (URL) that indicates where a service-specific content for an indicator can be downloaded.

A method aspect is also set forth.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a direct access (DA) email distribution and synchronization system 20 allows direct access to different mail sources, allowing messages to be transferred directly to a mobile wireless handheld device from a source mailbox. As a result, different mail stores need not be used for integrated external source mail accounts, and a permanent copy of an email in a local email store is not required.

Although this diagram depicts objects as functionally separate, such depiction is merely for illustrative purposes. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the objects portrayed in this figure can be arbitrarily combined or divided into separate software, firmware or hardware components. Furthermore, it will also be apparent to those skilled in the art that such objects, regardless of how they are combined or divided, can execute on the same computing device or can be arbitrarily distributed among different computing devices connected by one or more networks.

The direct access system 20 enables email users or subscribers to have email from third party email services pushed to various mobile wireless communications devices 25. Users need not create a handheld email account to gain direct access to an existing external email account. The direct access system 20 may operate without performing aggregation as used in some prior art systems, in which emails are aggregated from multiple different source mailboxes to a single target mailbox. In other words, email need not be stored in an intermediate target mailbox, but instead may advantageously be accessed directly from a source mail store.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the direct access system 20 illustratively includes a Web client (WC) engine 22 and a mobile office platform (MOP) 24. These Web client engine 22 and mobile office platform 24 operate together to provide users with direct access to their email from mobile wireless communications devices 25 via one or more wireless communications networks 27, for example. Both the Web client engine 22 and the mobile office platform 24 may be located at the same location or at separate locations, and implemented in one or more servers. The web client engine 22 illustratively includes a port agent 30 for communicating with the wireless communications devices 25 via the wireless communications network(s) 27, a worker 32, a supervisor 34, and an attachment server 36, which will be discussed further below. An alert server 38 is shown in dashed lines, and in one preferred embodiment, is not used, but could be part of the system in yet other embodiments.

The mobile office platform 24 illustratively includes a DA proxy 40, and a proxy application programming interface (API) 42 and a cache 44 cooperating with the DA proxy. The mobile office platform 24 also illustratively includes a load balance and cache (LBAC) module 46, an event server 48, a universal proxy (UP) Servlet 54, an AggCron module 56, a mobile office platform (MOP) engine 58, and a database (DB) engine 60, which will be discussed in further detail below. The Least Recently Used (LRU) cache 41 caches new messages, and can release messages and objects that were least recently used.

The supervisor 34 processes new mail notifications that it receives from the direct access proxy 40. It then assigns a job, in the form of a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet, to the least-loaded worker 32, according to the most recent UDP heartbeat the supervisor 34 has received. For purposes of this description, heartbeat is a tool that monitors the state of the server. Additionally, the supervisor 34 will receive a new service book request from the direct access proxy 40 to send service books to the mobile wireless communication device for new or changed accounts. A service book can be a class that could contain all service records currently defined. This class can be used to maintain a collection of information about the device, such as connection information or services, such as an email address of the account.

The worker 32 is an intermediary processing agent between the supervisor 34 and the port agent 30, and responsible for most processing in the Web client engine 22. It will retrieve e-mail from a universal proxy 54, via a direct access proxy, and format e-mail in Compressed Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (CMIME) as a type of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension, and send it to the port agent 30, for further processing. Its responsibilities include the following tasks: (1) messages sent to and received from the handheld; (2) message reply, forward and more requests; (3) Over The Air Folder Management operation (OTAFM); (4) attachment viewing; and (5) service book.

The port agent 30 acts as a transport layer between the infrastructure and the rest of the Web client engine 22. It is responsible for delivering packets to and from the mobile wireless communications device. To support different integrated mailboxes with one device, more than one service book can be used, and each service book can be associated with one integrated mailbox. A port agent 30 can include one Server Relay Protocol (SRP) connection to a relay, but it can also handle multiple SRP connections, and each connection may have a unique Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) associated with a service book. The attachment server 36 provides service for document/attachment conversion requests from workers 32.

The direct access proxy 40 provides a Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) interface that is used by the worker 32 to access account and mailbox information. This provides functionality to create, change and move documents on a remote server, e.g., a Web server. The direct access proxy 40 typically will present an asynchronous interface to its clients. The LBAC module 46 is used by a notification server and the Web client engine 22 components to locate the proper DA proxy for the handling of a request. The universal proxy Servlet 54 abstracts access to disparate mail stores into a common protocol. The event server 48 responds to notifications of new messages from corporate servers 52 and/or mail service providers 50, which may be received via the Internet 40, for example. The notifications are communicated to the direct access proxy 40 by the AggCron module 56 and the event server 48 so that it may initiate checking for new mail on source mailboxes 51, 53 of the mail service providers 50 and/or corporate servers 52. The proxy API can be a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Daemon 42 and is the primary interface into a database 60, which is the primary data store for the mobile office platform 24. The AggCron module 56 may also periodically initiate polling for new messages as well.

FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram showing user interface components of the direct access proxy 40. More particularly, the direct access proxy 40 illustratively includes an identifier module 72 with various downstream proxy modules for different communication formats, such as a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) proxy module 74 and a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) proxy module 76. Of course, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of proxy modules for other communications formats may also be used.

The identifier module 72 provides a centralized authentication service for the direct access system 20 and other services. An authentication handshake may be provided between an ID service and direct access system 20 to ensure that users have the proper credentials before they are allowed access to the direct access system 20. The ability to switch from managing a Web client to a direct access system, or vice versa, may occur without requiring the user to re-enter any login credentials. Any Web client and direct access may share session management information on behalf of a user.

The WAP proxy 74 provides a wireless markup language (WML)-based user interface for configuring source mailboxes with the mobile office platform 24. The HTML proxy 76 provides an HTML-based user interface for configuring of source mailboxes in the MOP 24. The proxy API 42 (SOAP Daemon) is the primary interface into the database 60. The engine 58 is a protocol translator that connects to a source mailbox to validate configuration parameters. The database 60 is the primary user data store for the mobile office platform 24.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 illustrate respective Web client engine machines 80 (FIG. 3), an engine machine 82 (FIG. 4), and database machine 84 (FIG. 5). The Web client engine machine 80 illustratively includes the supervisors 34, workers 36, and port agents 38. Relays 86 cooperate with the port agents 38 using a GUID.

The engine machine 82 illustratively includes a direct access proxy 40, HTML proxy 76, WAP proxy 74, PDS module 88, UP Servlet 54, LBAC module 46, a sendmail module 90, an secure mail client (SMC) server 92, a secure sockets layer (SSL) proxy 94, an aggregation engine 96, and event server 48. The SMC server 92 cooperates with corresponding SMC modules resident on certain corporate networks, for example, to convey email data between the mobile office platform 24 and source mailboxes. The database machine 84 may include an aggregation application programming interface (API) 100 as a SOAP Daemon, an administration console 102, an aggregation database 104, the AggCron module 56, an SMC directory server 106, and a send mail module 90.

The various components of the Web client engine 22 may be configured to run on different machines or servers. The component binaries and configuration files may either be placed in a directory on the network or placed on a local disk that can be accessed to allow the appropriate components to run from each machine. In accordance with one exemplary implementation, deployment may include one supervisor, two workers, and one port agent for supporting 30,000 external source mailboxes, although other configurations may also be used. Actual production deployment may depend on the results of load, performance and stress testing, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

For the mobile office platform 24 direct access components, modules and various functions, machines are typically installed in two configurations, namely engine machines (FIG. 4) and database machines (FIG. 5). While these machines may have all of the above-described components installed on them, not all of these components need be active in all applications (e.g., aggregation may be used with systems that do not support push technology, etc.). Once again, actual production deployment may depend on the results of load, performance and stress testing.

The mobile office platform 24 architecture in one known technique advantageously uses a set of device/language-specific eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) files, which transform application data into presentation information. In one non-limiting example, a build process takes a non-localized XSL and generates a localized XSL for each supported language. When the XSL is used, it is “compiled” in memory and cached for repeated use. The purpose of pre-localizing and caching the templates is to reduce the CPU cycles required to generate a presentation page.

Branding may also be performed. Initially, a localized XSL may build a WAP application to access aggregated email accounts. A WAP proxy application may be localizable and support multiple WAP devices. For each logical page of an application, a device-specific XSL may be created, which may be localized for each language/country supported. This rendering scheme may support not only WAP devices, but also SMTP, HTML and POP proxies, for example. In branding, each page of a given application may be customized for each different brand.

The branding of a page may be accomplished through XSL imports, including the use of a Java application programming interface (API) for XML processing (JAXP) feature to resolve the imports dynamically. This need not require that each combined page/brand template be compiled and cached. By way of example, in a sample template directory, first and second pages for a single language/country may be combined with branded counterparts to generate a plurality of distinct template combinations. It is also possible to profile memory requirements of an application by loading templates for a single language, device/application and brand. An HTML device may include a set of templates that are large compared to other devices.

In one known technique, the mobile office platform 24 advantageously builds processes and takes non-localized files and language-specific property files and combines them to make each non-localized XSL into an XSL for each supported language. A separate XSL for each language need not be used, and the language factor may be removed from the memory usage equation. A JAXP API may be used to extend XSL with Java classes. The extensions may take various forms, for example, including extension elements and extension functions. A template may be transformed by creating and initializing an extension object with a locale and passing an object to a transformer. The system can remove multiple imports and use less memory. HTML templates can use template importing to enable template reuse, much like Java classes, and reuse other Java classes through a mechanism like derivation or importing.

In the direct access system 20, users receive email on their mobile wireless communications devices 25 from multiple external accounts, and when replying to a received message, the reply-to and sent-from address integrity is preserved. For example, for a user that has an integrated Yahoo! account (user@yahoo.com) and a POP3 account (user@pop3.com), if they receive an email at user@yahoo.com, their replies generated from the device 25 will appear to come from user@yahoo.com. Similarly, if a user receives an email at user@pop3.com, their replies will appear to come from user@pop3.com.

Selection of the “sent from” address is also available to a user that composes new messages. The user will have the ability to select the “sent from” address when composing a new message. Depending on the source mailbox type and protocol, the message may also be sent through the source mail service. This functionality can be supported by sending a configuration for each source mailbox, for example, as a non-limiting example, a service book for each source mailbox 51, 53 to the mobile wireless communications device 25.

As noted above, a service book is a class that may include all service records currently defined.

This class may be used to maintain a collection of information about the device, such as connection information. The service book may be used to manage HTTP connections and mail (CMIME) information such as account and hierachy. At mobile wireless communications devices 25, a delete service book request may be sent when a source mailbox 51, 53 is removed from the account. The service book may also be resent to the device 25 with a viewable name that gives the user some indication that the selection is no longer valid.

A sent items folder may also be “synchronized.” Any device-originated sent messages may be propagated to a source account and stored in a sent mail folder, for example. Also, messages deleted on the device 25 may correspondingly be deleted from the source mailbox 51, 53. Another example is that device-originated marking of a message as read or unread on the device 25 may similarly be propagated to the source mailbox 51, 53. While the foregoing features are described as source-dependent and synchronizing one-way, in some embodiments certain synchronization features may in addition, or instead, propagate from the source mailbox/account to the handheld device, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

When available, the mail service provider or corporate mail server may be used for submission of outgoing messages. While this may not be possible for all mail service providers or servers, it is preferrably used when available as it may provide several advantages. For example, subscribers to AOL will get the benefit of AOL-specific features like parental controls. Furthermore, AOL and Yahoo users, as non-limiting examples, will see messages in their sent items folder, and messages routed in this manner may be more compliant with new spam policies such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Sender Id. In addition, messages sent via corporate mail servers 52 will have proper name resolution both at the global address list level and the personal level. It should be understood, however, that the use of the mail service provider 50 to deliver mail may be dependant on partner agreements and/or protocol, depending upon the given implementation.

The architecture described above also advantageously allows for features such as on-demand retrieval of message bodies and attachments and multiple folder support. Morever, a “this-is-spam” button or indicator may be used allowing company labels and other service provider-specific features when supported by an underlying protocol, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

One particular advantage of the direct access system 20 is that a user need not configure an account before integrating additional accounts. However, a standalone email address may be used, and this address advantageously need not be tied to a mailbox size which the subscriber is required to manage. For example, the email account may be managed by an administrator, and any mail could be purged from the system after a pre-determined period of time (i.e., time-based auto-aging with no mailbox limit for all users).

Additionally, all aspects of any integrated email account creation, settings and options may advantageously be available to the user from their mobile wireless communications device 25. Thus, users need not visit an HTML site and change a setting, create a filter, or perform similar functions, for example. Of course, an HTML site may optionally be used.

As a system Internet email service with the direct access system 20 grows, ongoing emphasis may advantageously be placed on the administrative site to provide additional information to carrier administrators, support teams, and similar functions. However, in some instances a mail connector may be installed on a personal computer, and this functionality may not always be available from the mobile wireless communications device.

The Web client engine 22 may advantageously support different features including message to handheld (MTH), message from handheld (MFH), forward/reply a message, request to view more for a large message (e.g., larger than 2K), request viewing message attachment, and over the air folder management (OTAFM). These functions are explained below.

For an MTH function, each email account integrated for a user is linked with the user device through a Web client service book. For each new message that arrives in the Web client user mailbox, a notification that contains the new message information will typically be sent to a Web client engine supervisor component (FIG. 3), which in turn will assign the job to an available worker with the least load in the system. The chosen worker 32 will validate the user information and retrieve the new message from the user source mailbox and deliver it to the user device.

In an MFH function, MFH messages associated with a Web client service book are processed by the Web client engine 22 and delivered to the Internet 49 by the worker 32 via the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) or native outbox. If a user turns on the option to save the sent message to the sent items folder, the direct access proxy will save a copy of the sent message to this folder.

In a Forward/Reply/More function, the user can forward or reply an MTH or MFH message from the mobile wireless communications device 25 as long as the original message still existed in the direct access proxy cache or in user mailbox. For MTH, the worker 32 may send the first 2K, for example, or the whole message (whatever is less) to the user device. If the message is larger than 2K, the user can request MORE to view the next 2K of the message. In this case, the worker 32 will process the More request by retrieving the original message from the user source mailbox, and send back the 2K that the device requests. Of course, in some embodiments more than 2K of message text (or the entire message) may be sent.

In an attachment-viewing function, a user can view a message attachment of a popular document format (e.g., MS Word, MS Power Point, MS Excel, Word Perfect, PDF, text, etc.) or image format (GIF, JPEG, etc). Upon receiving the attachment-viewing request, which is implemented in a form of the more request in this example, the worker 32 can fetch the original message from the user source mailbox via the direct access proxy, extract the requested attachment, process it and send result back to the user device. The processing requires that the original message has not been deleted from the user Web client mailbox.

In the save sent message to sent items folder function, if the user turns this option on, the worker 32 places a copy of each MFH message sent from the user device in the user sent items folder in the mailbox. In over the air folder management, the Web client OTAFM service maintains any messages and folders in the user mailbox synchronized with the user device over the air.

Whenever a message in the user source mailbox is Moved/Deleted, the associated message on the device may also be Moved/Deleted accordingly, and vice-versa. When a message is Moved/Deleted on the device, the associated message in the user Web client mailbox may also be Moved/Deleted accordingly. Similarly, when a folder is Added/Removed/Renamed from the user Web client mailbox, the associated folder on the device may be Added/Removed/Renamed, and vice-versa.

The system 20 may advantageously support different subsets of various messaging features. For example, in the message to handheld function, the mobile office platform 24 may be responsible for connecting to the various source mailboxes 51, 53 to detect new emails. For each new mail, a notification is sent to the Web client engine 22 and, based on this notification, the supervisor 34 chooses one of the workers 32 to process that email. The chosen worker will fetch additional account information and the contents of the mail message from the direct access proxy 40 and deliver it to the user device 25.

In a message sent from handheld function, the MFH could be given to the direct access proxy 40 from the Web client worker 32. In turn, the mobile office platform 24 delivers a message to the Internet 49 by sending through a native outbox or sending it via SMTP. It should be understood, however, that the native outbox, whenever possible, may provide a better user experience, especially when taking into account current anti-spam initiatives such as SPF and sender Id.

In a message deleted from handheld function, when a message is deleted from the device 25, the Web client engine 22 notifies the mobile office platform 24 via the direct access proxy 40. As such, the mobile office platform 24 can delete the same message on the source mailbox.

When handling More/Forward/Reply/Attachment viewing requests, the Web client worker 32 may request an original mail from the direct access proxy 40. It will then process the request and send the results to the mobile wireless communications device 25. The architecture may additionally support on-demand retrieval of message parts and other upgrades, for example.

Upon the integration of a new source mailbox 51, 53, the service book notification from the alert server 38 may be sent to the supervisor 34, which assigns this notification to a worker 32 for sending out a service record to the device. Each source mailbox 51, 53 may be associated with a unique service record. In this way, each MFH message is linked with a source mailbox 51, 53 based on the service record on the device.

The system 20 may also poll the integrated external mailboxes periodically to check for new mail and to access any messages. The system 20 may further incorporate optimizations for polling bandwidth from an aggregation component allowing a quick poll. The system 20 can also advantageously support a large active user base and incorporate a rapidly growing user base.

The topology of load balancing can be based on the size of a component's queue and its throughput. These load statistics can be monitored by a mechanism in one example called the UDP Heartbeat, as described before. If a component is overloaded or has a large queue size, the component will have less chance to get an assigned job from other components. In contrast, a component will get more assigned jobs if it completes more jobs in the last few hours than other components. With this mechanism, the load could distribute over heterogeneous machine hardware, i.e., components running on less power machines will be assigned fewer jobs than those on machines with more power hardware.

General load balancing for any mobile office platform components can be accomplished through the use of a load balancer module, for example, a BIG-IP module produced by F5 Networks of Seattle, Wash. BIG-IP can provide load balancing and intelligent layer 7 switching, and can handle traffic routing from the Internet to any customer interfacing components such as the WAP and HTML proxies. The use of a BIG-IP or similar module may provide the application with pooling capabilities, fault tolerance and session management, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

Typically, access to a single source mailbox 51, 53 can be from a single direct access proxy 40 over a persistent connection. Any requests on behalf of a particular user could persist to the same machine in the same direct access clustered partition. As certain components are system-wide and will be handling work for users across many partitions, these components can be designed to determine which direct access partition to communicate with on a request-by-request basis.

The load balancer and cache (LBAC) 46 may support this function. The LBAC 46 is a system-wide component that can perform two important functions. The first of these function is that it provides a mapping from the device PIN to a particular direct access proxy 40, while caching the information in memory for both fast access and to save load on the central database. Secondly, as the direct access proxy 40 will be run in clustered partitions, the LBAC 46 may distribute the load across all direct access proxies within any partition.

The LBAC 46 can be formed of different components. For example, the code which performs the load balancing can be an extended version of a secure mail connector. The code can also perform lookups to the central database and cache the results (LBAC).

In one non-limiting example, when a worker requires that a direct access proxy 40 perform work, it provides the LBAC 46 with a device PIN. The LBAC 46 will discover which partition that PIN is associated with by looking in its cache, or retrieving the partition identifier from a central database (and caching the result). Once the partition is known, the LBAC 46 then consults its cache to see which direct access proxy in that partition has been designated to handle requests for that PIN. If no mapping exists, the LBAC requests the PDS to create a new association on the least loaded DA proxy 40 (again caching the result). Finally, the LBAC 46 responds to the worker 32 with the connection information for the proper direct access proxy to handle that particular request.

The secure mail connector 88 may run in failover pairs, where one is an active master and the other is a secondary standby. Internal data structures may be replicated in real-time from the master to the standby. Multiple LBACs 46 can be run for scalability and fault tolerance, but typically would require an external connection balancing component, such as the BIG-IP component as explained before.

A receiving component in the Web client engine 22 saves the job that has been assigned to it from other components to a job store on the disk before processing. It can update the status of the job and remove the job from the job store when the job processing is completed. In case of component failure or if the process is restarted, it can recover the jobs from the job store and, based on the current statuses of these jobs, continue processing these jobs to the next state, saving the time to reprocess them from the beginning.

Any recovery from the standpoint of MTH/MFH can be achieved through current polling behavior and on the Web client engine 22 recovery mechanisms. From within the mail office platform components, until a message has been successfully delivered to a Web client engine 22, that message is not recorded in the partition database 60. During the next polling interval, the system can again “discover” the message and attempt to notify the Web client engine 22. For new mail events, if an event is lost, the system can pick up that message upon receiving the next event or during the next polling interval. For sources supporting notifications, this interval could be set at six hours, as one non-limiting example. For messages sent from the Web client engine 22, and for messages that have been accepted by the Web client engine, recovery can be handled by different Web client engine components.

The Web client engine 22 may advantageously be horizontally and vertically scalable. Multiple supervisors 34 can be registered/configured with direct access proxies 40 to provide the distribution of the notification load and the availability of engine service. Multiple workers 32 and port agents 30 can run on the same machine or across multiple machines to distribute load and achieve redundancy. As the number of users grows, new components can be added to the system to achieve high horizontal scalability.

It is possible for a new component to be added/removed to/from the system automatically without down time. Traffic can automatically be delegated to a new component and diverted away from failed components. Each component within the mobile office platform 24 can be deployed multiple times to achieve horizontal scalability. To achieve vertical scalability, each mobile office platform 24 component can be a multi-threaded process with a configurable number of threads to scale under heavy load. Pools of connections can be used to reduce the overhead of maintaining too many open connections.

FIG. 6 is another embodiment of the high level architectural diagram of the BDA user interface components similar to the functional components shown in the diagram of FIG. 2. There will now follow a brief description of these basic components and their function.

Provisioning (PRV) 110 provides a centralized database 111 or store to access user and device Identifier (ID) profile information. During login, the WAP and HTML Proxies 74, 76 retrieve the ID profile, which provides user and device information. Proxies update PRV 110 for certain user configuration actions, such as a changed PIN. The web client database 112 (WC DB) contains account information for web client users. It is queried during login to determine if an unknown user is a web client user and whether they can be migrated. The WAP Proxy 74 provides a Wireless Markup Language (WML) based user interface for configuration of source mailboxes in the Mobile Office Platform (MOP). The HTML Proxy 74 provides an HTML based user interface for configuration of source mailboxes in MOP. The Soap Servlet 114 (SOAP Daemon) provides an interface into a database store. The Agg Engine 116 acts as a protocol translator that connects to a source mailbox to validate configuration parameters. The Mobile Office Platform Database (MOP DB) 118 is a primary user data store for the MOP. The Web Admin provides the MOP with notifications of account state changes. Provisioning 110 also provides notification of account state changes, such as inactive and active. Provisioning (PRV) can be used to notify and migrate a user from a Web Client (WC) service to an Internet Service (IS), having more advance features that are accessible from a web browser with a user email account, allowing a user to add and edit email accounts.

The Web Client Aggregation Programming Interface (WC AggAPI) 122 includes a database 124 and provides integrated source data for WC accounts. It is queried to retrieve integrated source configuration data to be migrated to a new Internet Service (IS) account for the user. The WC DB 112 provides web client account information. It is queried to retrieve web client account configuration data to be migrated to a Internet Service account for the user. The system can make use of existing products such as the Provisioning 110 and WebAdmin 120. These products have scaling characteristics. In this described embodiment, functionality has moved from Aggcron to the BDA proxy. The system provides a direct connection to a partition database within the BDA proxy. Access to the database can be from a configurable connection pool that will grow and shrink as necessary, depending on the needs of the system. The pool can recover from network errors and database connectivity issues.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the mobile office platform 24 having a database 150 and configuration module 152 and a subset of the configuration module, including an Entry Content Service (ECS) to be described in detail below. The database 150 stores a plurality of indicators that include image data for display characteristics and sound data for a ringing sound such as a ringing tune and loudness for different wireless carriers, electronic mail (email) service providers and device types. The wireless carriers and email service providers can be the same or different entities. For example, some telephone companies provide wireless phone service and messaging capabilities, while other companies provide only messaging services. The configuration module 152 accesses the database 150 and uploads the indicators for display and ringing characteristics in the form of image data and sound data for one of the wireless carrier, email service provider or device type to the mobile wireless communications device 25 upon provisioning of the mobile wireless communications device to access email from a remote location through the mobile office platform 24. The database can include a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image map that contains image data. During the provisioning process, the configuration module obtains from the database 150 any specific display or ringing sounds, such as an icon, text, graphics, color information, font or ringing sounds, for example, a ringing tune, tone or loudness to be displayed or heard on the mobile wireless communications device. The type of tune in this description encompasses the tone. These different characteristics or indicators are based on the wireless carrier, email service provider or device. The system or mobile office platform 24 pushes or uploads to the mobile wireless communications device these indicators when the user successfully provisions the new account. Thus, the correct icons or sound data files are delivered to the device and memory space in the device is not wasted by preloading any unused icons or sound data files during manufacturing, for example.

It should be understood that the database 150 and configuration module 152 can be the same functional components shown in FIG. 1 of the mobile office platform 24, and operative with the web client engine 22 such as portions of the database 60, DA proxy 40, and other functional components. Also, those functional components as described relative to FIG. 6 could be added functional components similar to those shown in FIG. 1, depending on the type of system or design used by one skilled in the art.

It should be understood that the configuration module 152 can change color, font size, font typeface, graphics, text, icons, resolution or ringing sounds. Also, the configuration module 152 can configure an email in-box based on the email service provider and establish an email in-box for each email service provider that a user uses, such that the display characteristics are different at each in-box for each email service provider. Ringing sounds could change when an email is received in one provider email in-box, and charge again when it is received in another provider email in-box. Also, each in-box could be segregated for each email service provider from a general mailbox. Each wireless carrier, email service provider and device type could have different display or ringing indicators. The general email in-box could have all messages and the other specific mailboxes could be limited to the messages from the specific email service provider.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are fragmentary block diagrams of a display used on a mobile wireless communications device and showing different font size and font typeface, icons and graphics used for different service providers, wireless carriers and devices. FIG. 8 shows one mobile wireless communications device having a display 200 with a different wireless carrier, email service provider and device type and different graphics or icons as compared to that displayed from the device display 202 in FIG. 9, which shows a different wireless service, email service provider and device.

FIG. 8 is a display of the wireless device that lists an email service provider called “Great Connection Provider” 204 with a specific graphic 206 showing a highway system as its graphic for the email service and internet. The wireless carrier is listed as “ABC Phone Service” 208 and uses a graphic as a city landscape 210. The device type is shown at the bottom as “Great Circuit Telephone Device” 212. The ringing sounds emanating from the speaker 214 has a first ringing characteristic as exemplified by the musical tones 215 and indicated as Tune 1.

FIG. 9 shows a different display 202 and the email service provider as the “Greatest Connection Provider” 220 and its graphic 222 as enmeshed gears. The telephone or wireless service is shown as “DEF Telephone Service” 224 and its graphic 226 as a telephone. The type of device is shown at 228 in a different font as the device name in FIG. 7 and lists “Better Circuit Telephone Devices.” The speaker 230 provides a different ringing characteristic 231 than the device 200 shown in FIG. 8.

FIGS. 8 and 9 both show central areas of the display in which text and other graphics can be displayed, including messages, address book functions, phone functions, browser functions, calendar functions, tasks, memo pad, calculator, alarm and games.

FIG. 8 shows a general desktop 250 on the display with a general mailbox 252 and specific in-boxes 254, 256 in a mailbox program, each mailbox corresponding to the specific email service provider, “Great Connection Provider” 220 and “Greatest Connection Provider” 222. Each mailbox has a different icon 256, 258, the “Great Connection Provider” having a light bulb and the “Greatest Connection Provider” having a lock. Different display characteristics such as font and size of type as illustrated. It should be understood that not only can the graphics, text, icons, font size, font typeface and resolution be different, but also the colors could also be different to distinguish between different wireless carriers, email service providers and device types.

A method can also be set forth such that the database stores the indicators as data for display characteristics, including image data and data for ringing sounds, and uploads the display characteristics to the mobile wireless communications device, for example, a specific icon, font or other graphic. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions is also set forth and the computer program can be contained on the mobile office platform components as described relative to FIGS. 1 and 7.

It should be understood, when an external email account is provisioned on a mobile wireless communications device, it may require its own application entry point to appear on the ribbon and elsewhere on the handheld (e.g. read/unread icons in the message list). The content for this entry-point can be provided by an HTTP service called the Entry-point Content Service (ECS) 153 as one of the functions of the components as described above. For example, it is illustrated at 153 in FIG. 7 and can be used to retrieve the branded/theme content.

For example, the mobile wireless communications device could attempt to retrieve the content if the CMIME service book's application data contains a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that indicates where service-specific content can be downloaded. If the service book specifies a URL for the content, the content will download automatically. If the content cannot be downloaded or if no URL is specified, a default icon could be displayed. The default icon could be similar to but distinct from the icon that is used for the unified message list entry point. This icon may be themed. The URL could be placed in the CMIME service book when a user integrates a new source mailbox account. The URL would allow the device client to access the ECS 153 with the information necessary to be served the correct content (i.e. icon image map, sound data, etc.).

To determine the values for the CMIME servicebook properties that a web client engine sends to the handheld, it could query the MOP DAProxy with a DAV PROPFIND command. For example, the servicebook portion of the XML data is presented below: <D:response> <D:propstat> <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status> <D:href><xsl:value-of select=“/pd:proxydata/pd:servletinfo/pd:requesturi”/></D:href> <D:prop> <s:from>[email address</s:from> <s:reply>[email address]</s:reply> <s:signature>[signature]</s:signature> <s:friendly>[friendlyname]</s:friendly> <s:autobcc>[autobcc]</s:autobcc> <sb:otafminit>[otafm-init]</sb:otafminit> <sb:otafmenabled>[otafm-enabled]</sb:otafmenabled> <sb:otafmdelete>[otafm-delmsgs]</sb:otafmdelete> <sb:otafmmove>[otafm-mvmsgs]</sb:otafmmove> <sb:otafmmsgstatus>[otafm-statmsgs]</sb:otafmmsgstatus> <sb:servicestatus>[svc-status]</sb:servicestatus> <sb:servicecid>[svc-cid]</sb:servicecid> <sb:encryptionmode>[encryption-mode]</sb:encryptionmode> <sb:compressionmode>[compression-mode]</sb:compressionmode> <sb:enablecontentserviceicon>[true|false]<sb:enablecontentserviceicon> <sb:contentserviceiconversion>1</sb:contentserviceiconversion> <sb:contentserviceurl>[contentService]</sb:contentserviceurl> <sb:servicename>[description]</sb:servicename> <s:srcwelcomemessage>[welcome message text]</s:srcwelcomemessage> <s:srcwelcomemessagesubject>[welcome message subject]</s:srcwelcomemessagesubject> <s:srcwelcomemessagereplyto>[welcome message replyto]</s:srcwelcomemessagereplyto> </D:prop> </D:propstat> </D:response>

The following fields are more relevant to the content service functionality:

1) sb:enablecontentserviceicon-if this XML element value is ‘true’, then the servicebook will be populated with the value of sb:contentserviceurl, otherwise no ribbon icon will be displayed;

2) sb:contentserviceiconversion-the value of this XML element is currently always 1; and

3) sb:contentserviceurl-if this XML element is empty or not present, the servicebook is flagged to use the default device ribbon icon, otherwise the service book (sb) is populated with the url and the handheld will attempt to retrieve the image from the URL.

The content returned from the ECS 153 can contain image data, e.g., icon image data, data for ringing sounds and similar functions.

The image data contains entry-point images used by handheld device. These include images for focused and unfocused ribbon icons as well as read and unread message icons. The images can be supplied in one large Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image map. FIG. 10 is an example of an image map illustrated at 300. The image map 300 includes a normal icon 302 of “n” pixels, a focused icon 304, a read icon 306 and unread icon 308 indicating read and unread matters, although the read and unread icons would not always be used in certain applications and are typically not mandatory.

There are some HTTP communication specifications. The content service can follow the HTTP 1.1 RFC (Request for Comment) accepting requests and generating responses as one non-limiting example. For example, if the client (handheld device) requires the connection closed, it would need to be specified in the request. Furthermore, HTTP 1.1 states that data may be “chunked”—although this is unlikely to occur in the content service response. Nevertheless, the handheld device client is required to handle “chunked” data. An example of request and responses is shown below as non-limiting examples. GET TEAMON_URL HTTP/1.1 Host: TEAMON_SERVER profile: DEVICE_XML_DOC If-Modified-Since: If-Modified-Since Accept: ACCEPTABLE_CONTENT User-Agent: USER_AGENT HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: CONTENT_TYPE Content-Length: CONTENT_LENGTH Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 16:44:34 GMT X-Rim-Icon-Width: ICON_WIDTH X-Rim-Icon-Height: ICON_HEIGHT X-Rim-Icon-Indices: ICON_INDICES Connection: close PAYLOAD_DATA. . .

Parameter Description Required? TEAMON_URL HTTP request URL; see below for more Yes information TEAMON_SERVER HTTP server host and port; e.g. Yes “trunk.seattle.rim.net:8083” DEVICE_XML_DOC Provides information about the handheld Yes device. The “profile” header is a WAP standard. If-Modified- If the requested image has not been No Since modified since the time specified in this field, a 304 (not modified) response will be returned without any message-body ACCEPTABLE_CONTENT List of MIME content types supported by Yes the device USER_AGENT Handheld device's user agent Yes HTTP_RESPONSE_CODE Any valid response code from Yes http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2 616-sec10.html#sec10.3 e.g. “200 OK” or “404 Not Found”; note that a 3xx redirection code may be returned hence the requestor should be able to handle that. See section below. CONTENT_TYPE Image's MIME content type; e.g. Yes “image/png”; see http://www.iana.org/assignments/media types for more information. CONTENT_LENGTH Integer length of content (probably Yes binary) data ICON_WIDTH Actual icon image size width, in pixels. Yes, if ICON_HEIGHT Actual icon image size height, in payload pixels. is image data ICON_INDICES Comma-separated list of integer indices Yes, if into the PNG image map; see below for payload more information is image data PAYLOAD_DATA Content (probably binary) data Yes

These are some HTTP response codes as non-limiting examples. Since the content service follows the HTTP 1.1 RFC, it may respond with any of the HTTP response codes defined in http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10 e.g. 200, 302, 404, 500, and similar codes.

Generally, the service will respond with “200 OK” and serve the requested content. However, it may sometimes respond with a 3xx redirection code, usually one of the following:

-   -   “302 Found”         -   http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.3.3     -   “304 Not Modified”         -   http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.3.5

The service may also respond with an error, usually one of the following:

-   -   “404 Not Found”         -   http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.4.5     -   “500 Internal Server Error”         -   http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.5.1             The handheld device client can appropriately handle any of             the above responses.

There are some parameter details. For example, TEAMON_URL is a URL that points to an entry-point content service. It has the following format:

/html?c=400&a=1&item=ITEM&theme=THEME&locale=LOCALE&icon_width=ICO N_WIDTH&icon_height=ICON HEIGHT Query parameter Description Required? ITEM Specifies the item to be fetched; No currently the only legal values are “icon”. If this query parameter is omitted then it is assumed to be “icon”. THEME Name of the brand/theme; usually No the carrier name e.g. “tmobile” or “rogers” ICON_WIDTH Desired icon width, in pixels. Yes, if ICON_HEIGHT Desired icon height, in pixels. ITEM = icon

A parameter for ICON-INDICES is a comma-separated list of integers that contains indices into the PNG image map. Each index is zero based. A missing integer signifies a missing icon image. The list can have the following format: Index Description A Index for the normal ribbon icon B Index for the focused ribbon icon C Index for the read message icon* D Index for the unread message*

For example, “0,,1,” indicates that the normal icon is in the first position, and the read message icon is in the second, and there are no focused or unread icons.

The following is an example of the URL stored in the CMIME service book:

-   -   http://bist.teamon.com/html?c=400&a=1

The following is an example of what the URL might look like after other query parameters are appended. This is an example of the actual URL request made to the service:

-   -   http://bist.teamon.com/html?c=400&a=1&item=icon&theme=std&icon_width=8&icon_height=8

The following is an example of the HTTP request/response, including headers, traffic for retrieving icon image map from the service: GET /html?c=400&a=1&item=icon&theme=std&icon_width=8&icon_height=8 HTTP/1.1 Connection: close profile: http://www.blackberry.net/go/mobile/profiles/uaprof/7290/4.0.0.rdf Accept: application/vnd.rim.html, image/jpg, image/png, image/vnd.rim.png, image/x-png Accept-Language: en User-Agent: BlackBerry7290/4.0.0 Via: MDS_4.0.0.48 Host: bist.teamon.com HTTP/1.1 200 OK Expires: Thu, 01 Jun 2005 11:00:00 GMT Content-Type: image/png Content-Length: 1147 Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:47:35 GMT Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1 X-Rim-Icon-Width: 8 X-Rim-Icon-Height: 8 Connection: close ‰PNG...

There are typical valid string values for a “theme”. The icon size could be specified in pixels in the request via the width and height parameters. Any non-zero values should be valid. The icon dimensions can vary according to the currently loaded theme. The icons could be horizontally arranged (side-by-side) in the image map, and a consistent size could be assumed for all icons.

An example of a handheld mobile wireless communications device 1000 that may be used is further described in the example below with reference to FIG. 11. The device 1000 illustratively includes a housing 1200, a keypad 1400 and an output device 1600. The output device shown is a display 1600, which is preferably a full graphic LCD. Other types of output devices may alternatively be utilized. A processing device 1800 is contained within the housing 1200 and is coupled between the keypad 1400 and the display 1600. The processing device 1800 controls the operation of the display 1600, as well as the overall operation of the mobile device 1000, in response to actuation of keys on the keypad 1400 by the user.

The housing 1200 may be elongated vertically, or may take on other sizes and shapes (including clamshell housing structures). The keypad may include a mode selection key, or other hardware or software for switching between text entry and telephony entry.

In addition to the processing device 1800, other parts of the mobile device 1000 are shown schematically in FIG. 11. These include a communications subsystem 1001; a short-range communications subsystem 1020; the keypad 1400 and the display 1600, along with other input/output devices 1060, 1080, 1100 and 1120; as well as memory devices 1160, 1180 and various other device subsystems 1201. The mobile device 1000 is preferably a two-way RF communications device having voice and data communications capabilities. In addition, the mobile device 1000 preferably has the capability to communicate with other computer systems via the Internet.

Operating system software executed by the processing device 1800 is preferably stored in a persistent store, such as the flash memory 1160, but may be stored in other types of memory devices, such as a read only memory (ROM) or similar storage element. In addition, system software, specific device applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarily loaded into a volatile store, such as the random access memory (RAM) 1180. Communications signals received by the mobile device may also be stored in the RAM 1180.

The processing device 1800, in addition to its operating system functions, enables execution of software applications 1300A-1300N on the device 1000. A predetermined set of applications that control basic device operations, such as data and voice communications 1300A and 1300B, may be installed on the device 1000 during manufacture. In addition, a personal information manager (PIM) application may be installed during manufacture. The PIM is preferably capable of organizing and managing data items, such as e-mail, calendar events, voice mails, appointments, and task items. The PIM application is also preferably capable of sending and receiving data items via a wireless network 1401. Preferably, the PIM data items are seamlessly integrated, synchronized and updated via the wireless network 1401 with the device user's corresponding data items stored or associated with a host computer system.

Communication functions, including data and voice communications, are performed through the communications subsystem 1001, and possibly through the short-range communications subsystem. The communications subsystem 1001 includes a receiver 1500, a transmitter 1520, and one or more antennas 1540 and 1560. In addition, the communications subsystem 1001 also includes a processing module, such as a digital signal processor (DSP) 1580, and local oscillators (LOs) 1601. The specific design and implementation of the communications subsystem 1001 is dependent upon the communications network in which the mobile device 1000 is intended to operate. For example, a mobile device 1000 may include a communications subsystem 1001 designed to operate with the Mobitex™, Data TAC™ or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile data communications networks, and also designed to operate with any of a variety of voice communications networks, such as AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, PCS, GSM, etc. Other types of data and voice networks, both separate and integrated, may also be utilized with the mobile device 1000.

Network access requirements vary depending upon the type of communication system. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks, mobile devices are registered on the network using a unique personal identification number or PIN associated with each device. In GPRS networks, however, network access is associated with a subscriber or user of a device. A GPRS device therefore requires a subscriber identity module, commonly referred to as a SIM card, in order to operate on a GPRS network.

When required network registration or activation procedures have been completed, the mobile device 1000 may send and receive communications signals over the communication network 1401. Signals received from the communications network 1401 by the antenna 1540 are routed to the receiver 1500, which provides for signal amplification, frequency down conversion, filtering, channel selection, etc., and may also provide analog to digital conversion. Analog-to-digital conversion of the received signal allows the DSP 1580 to perform more complex communications functions, such as demodulation and decoding. In a similar manner, signals to be transmitted to the network 1401 are processed (e.g. modulated and encoded) by the DSP 1580 and are then provided to the transmitter 1520 for digital to analog conversion, frequency up conversion, filtering, amplification and transmission to the communication network 1401 (or networks) via the antenna 1560.

In addition to processing communications signals, the DSP 1580 provides for control of the receiver 1500 and the transmitter 1520. For example, gains applied to communications signals in the receiver 1500 and transmitter 1520 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gain control algorithms implemented in the DSP 1580.

In a data communications mode, a received signal, such as a text message or web page download, is processed by the communications subsystem 1001 and is input to the processing device 1800. The received signal is then further processed by the processing device 1800 for an output to the display 1600, or alternatively to some other auxiliary I/O device 1060. A device user may also compose data items, such as e-mail messages, using the keypad 1400 and/or some other auxiliary I/O device 1060, such as a touchpad, a rocker switch, a thumb-wheel, or some other type of input device. The composed data items may then be transmitted over the communications network 1401 via the communications subsystem 1001.

In a voice communications mode, overall operation of the device is substantially similar to the data communications mode, except that received signals are output to a speaker 1100, and signals for transmission are generated by a microphone 1120. Alternative voice or audio I/O subsystems, such as a voice message recording subsystem, may also be implemented on the device 1000. In addition, the display 1600 may also be utilized in voice communications mode, for example to display the identity of a calling party, the duration of a voice call, or other voice call related information.

The short-range communications subsystem enables communication between the mobile device 1000 and other proximate systems or devices, which need not necessarily be similar devices. For example, the short-range communications subsystem may include an infrared device and associated circuits and components, or a Bluetooth™ communications module to provide for communication with similarly-enabled systems and devices.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come to the mind of one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications and embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. 

1. A system of provisioning a mobile wireless communications device for indicating account or device specific characteristics, comprising: a database for storing a plurality of indicators that are indicative of different wireless carriers, email service providers, and device types; and a configuration module for accessing the database and uploading an indicator that is indicative of at least one of the wireless carriers, email service providers or device types to the mobile wireless communications device upon provisioning of the mobile wireless communications device to access email from a remote location, wherein said indicator comprises at least data for a ringing sound on the mobile wireless communications device.
 2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the indicator additionally comprises image data.
 3. A system according to claim 2, wherein said image data comprises data for focused and unfocused ribbon icons and read and unread message icons.
 4. A system according to claim 2, and further comprising a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image map that contains image data.
 5. A system according to claim 2, wherein said image data comprises a color to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device.
 6. A system according to claim 2, wherein said image data comprises a font size, font typeface, graphics, text, icons or resolution to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device.
 7. A system according to claim 1, wherein said sound data for a ringing sound comprises one of at least sound data for a ringing tune and loudness.
 8. A system according to claim 1, wherein said indicator comprises data for a ribbon icon.
 9. A system according to claim 1, and further comprising service book application data containing a uniform resource locator (URL) that indicates where service-specific content for an indicator can be downloaded.
 10. A system for provisioning a mobile wireless communications device for indicating account or device specific characteristics, comprising: a database storing a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image map and sound data for a ringing sound used on a mobile wireless communications device, said image map having image data, wherein said image data and sound data are indicative of different wireless carriers, email service providers, and device types; and an entry point content service operative with the database for uploading indicators to a mobile wireless communications device, and further comprising service book application data containing a uniform resource locator (URL) that indicates where a service-specific content for an indicator can be downloaded.
 11. A system according to claim 10, wherein said image data comprises a color to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device.
 12. A system according to claim 10, wherein said image data comprises a font size, font typeface, graphics, text, icons or resolution to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device.
 13. A system according to claim 10, wherein said image data comprises data regarding an image icon.
 14. A system according to claim 10, wherein said sound data for a ringing sound comprises one of at least sound data for a ringing tune and loudness.
 15. A method of provisioning a mobile wireless communications device for indicating account or device specific characteristics, comprising: storing within a database a plurality of indicators that are indicative of different wireless carriers, email service providers, and device types; and accessing the database and uploading an indicator that is indicative of at least one of the wireless carriers, email service providers or device types to the mobile wireless communications device upon provisioning of the mobile wireless communications device to access email from a remote location, wherein said indicator comprises at least sound data for a ringing sound on the mobile wireless communications.
 16. A method according to claim 15, which further comprises uploading image data.
 17. A method according to claim 15, which further comprises uploading image data comprising data for focused and unfocused ribbon icons and read and unread message icons.
 18. A method according to claim 15, which further comprises obtaining image data from a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image map.
 19. A method according to claim 15, which further comprises uploading image data comprising a color to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device.
 20. A method according to claim 15, which further comprises uploading image data comprising a font size, font typeface, graphics, text, icons or resolution to be displayed on the mobile wireless communications device.
 21. A method according to claim 15, which further comprising changing one of at least a ringing tune and loudness for the ringing sound.
 22. A method according to claim 15, which further comprises changing a ribbon icon as an indicator.
 23. A method according to claim 15, which further comprises obtaining a uniform resource locator (URL) that indicates where a service-specific content can be downloaded for service book application data. 